Court Bars Isa JC from Gombe APC House of Reps Primary

By Williams Danjuma, Gombe

The Federal High Court sitting in Gombe has nullified the All Progressives Congress (APC) Primary Election for Balanga/Billiri Federal Constituency that produced Honourable Ali Isa JC as the party’s flag bearer.

The Court in its rulling by Justice Vera Ibrahim Wednesday afternoon, ordered the conduct of a fresh primary election within 30 days and says Ali Isa JC is ineligible to participate in the election.

Ali Isa JC, was the Minority Whip of the House of Representatives while he was a member of the PDP but lost the position when he joined the the ruling APC few days before its primary election on 16th May, 2026.

He was later declared winner of the APC primary election. But during Wednesday’s ruling, the Court established that Ali Isa JC’s name was not contained in the APC membership register submitted to INEC 21 days before the election as obtained by section 77 of the electoral act.

The court established that Ali JC joined the APC 16 days before the apc primary election.

According to Justice Vera Ibrahim, the issue was not simply Ali’s party membership, but compliance with the statutory requirement for the membership register, and found that the party and INEC failed to produce evidence showing his name was in the register.

Alfred John Atajiri, had approached the court for justice after Ali Isa JC was declared winner of the primary election. He alleged that Ali Isa was not a member of the APC when the primary election was conducted.

Counsel to Alfred John Atajiri, Mr. Ibrahim Aliyu Nassarawa, while speaking to Journalists, welcomed the judgment and said the judgment has favoured what they had prayed for.